38 
CORN AND GRASS. 
roll literally swarmed with Wireworms. The previous crop was 
Potatoes.” 
Mr. P. Loney, writing from Marchmont, Berwickshire, on the 19th 
of June, mentioned that there were several patches of Wireworm in 
the county, but not to any great extent, and good had been done by 
the application of top-dressing to Oats and other crops, thereby giving 
a more vigorous growth and pushing the plant on as much as possible 
beyond the destructive effects of Wireworm or grub, as the case 
might be.” 
The following observations by Mr. Sturdy, of Trigon, Wareham, 
give the results of experiments he kindly undertook, at my request, to 
ascertain the effects of Indian rape-cake on Wireworms. 
This point is of very practical interest. I experimented myself in 
1882 as to the effect on Wireworms both of the common rape-cake and 
also of the so-called Indian or Kurrachee rape-cake (which is, in fact, 
mustard-cake) with the result of the Wireworms being in no way the 
ivorse for being fed on the common rage-cake, even in the case of this 
moistened with water being their sole food. 
With regard to the Indian cake—that is, mustard-cake—there 
appeared reason to think it might be poisonous to them : we are all 
well aware of the good effect of mustard as a clearing crop for Wire- 
worms, and in experiments in which Wireworms were solely fed on 
this mustard-cake they appeared to be partially or wholly poisoned by 
it. Therefore, at my request, in order that we might make out what 
would happen in fairly natural circumstances, Mr. Sturdy carried on 
the experiments with Indian rape-cake applied as manure to Oats sown 
in boxes, so that we might be sure of all points noted, but at the same 
time the Wireworms could choose their own food. 
The experiment extended over rather more than a year—from 
March, in 1883, to May, 1884—and the result, as given in detail 
below, shows that the Oats manured with the Indian rape-cake, or 
mustard-cake, throve much better than those that had none ; that the 
Oats so manured were little attacked compared to the others not manured; 
further, as time went on, the Wireworms in the box where there had 
been no rape-cake duly went through their changes to Click Beetles ; 
but on May 1st—that is, fourteen months after the commencement of 
the experiment—the Wireworms in the Indian rape, which are noted 
as having had “no food for many months but this rape-cake,” still 
continued Wireworms, and fat and well. 
I repeat the first part of Mr. Sturdy’s observations, begun in 1883, 
to make the record complete :— 
“ Two boxes were sown with Oats in March, and when about two 
inches high one box was well larded with bits of the Kurrachee Indian 
rape-cake you sent me : the bits were about the size of hazel nuts, 
